§ The Lord Bishop of Oxfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 15 March (HL Deb, cols 1–3), whether they will report to the Security Council of the United Nations the export by the United States of anthrax and botulinum toxin, the principal components of Iraqi bioweapons programmes, to Iraq given that at the time United States Senators had witnessed Iraq's crimes against Iran and that such materials could be reproduced to produce such weapons. [HL2094]
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)As I made clear to the right reverend Prelate in the Chamber, it is not the intention of the Government to report to the UN Security Council these exports by the United States. The Government do not believe that there are grounds for such action. The goods in question were exported in full compliance with export controls in place at the time following careful scrutiny by the relevant US licensing authority, which judged that there was no reason to believe that the materials would be used for anything other than legitimate research purposes.
Exports of such materials from the United States ceased when it became clear that Iraq was using weapons of mass destruction in the war against Iran, and against its own people at Halabja in 1988.